Wednesday, September 20, 2006

More Shocking

[Disclaimer: This post was first published on Coleen Rowley's campaign weblog.]

"If you're talking to me in eight or 10 months, and we're not starting to see actual withdrawals, I'll be shocked." - John Kline in the Star Tribune, November 24, 2005

Not to beat this quote to death, but it's been almost exactly 10 months since John Kline said this, and yesterday, according to the Associated Press:

Gen. John Abizaid, the commander of U.S. forces throughout the Middle East, told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that the military will likely maintain - or possibly even increase - force levels of more than 140,000 troops in Iraq through next spring. The current total is 145,000, up about 20,000 since June.

Abizaid also stated that the increased commitment of troops will last at least through the spring. The Army is working on recruitment to grow in size from 504,000 soldiers to 512,000. Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institute notes that the Army should have set even higher recruitment goals at the outset of the conflict rather than waiting until now, but Donald Rumsfeld opposed such action in order to keep costs down.